I got an error much like this a few days ago while updating my kernel.
I stayed up late looking into and found:
* It's a known bug, #213663.[1]
* The changelog for the upstream 2.4.23-rc2 kernel release says:
"Fix ide-scsi initialization lockup (kudos to Alan)."[2]
* The changelog for Debian's kernel-source-2.4.22 package, version
2.4.22-4 (11/15/2003), says: "Fixed initialisation lockup in
drivers/scsi/ide-scsi.c (bk, closes: #213663)."[3]
I was using kernel-source-2.4.22_2.4.22-3 and, indeed, updating to
2.4.22-4 fixed my problem.